Notes / Political and Geostrategic Observatory of the United States
28 October 2025
Patrons, clients and the Middle East peace deal
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Lincoln Mitchell
Political analyst, essayist, lecturer at Columbia University
“This raises the question of how the Trump administration was able to get this deal
done, but that framing is too narrow as there were other important actors who made
it happen. There are many lenses through which to understand this, but a very
helpful one is through patron-client relations, because while the war itself was fought
between Israel and Hamas, both forces had powerful outside backers.”